1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a door holding device for a motor vehicle door. The device includes a door holding rod which is pivotally connected by means of a bearing block to a door installation member, door or door post and is provided with locking means determining the positions in which the door is to be locked and with an end stop means determining the end position of the door. The device further includes a holder housing which is rigidly connected to another door installation member. The door holding rod extends through the holder housing. A first roller as an abutment roller is mounted in the holder housing so as to be rotatable about a rigid axis. A second roller as a load-applying roller is rotatably mounted on a load-applying arm of a torsion rod spring which rests against the holder housing by means of a support arm. The door holding rod extends between the two rollers.
2. Description of the Related Art
In known door holding devices of this type, the door holding rod has an essentially rectangular cross-section and the locking means determining the positions in which the door is to be locked are formed by recesses in a narrow side of the door holding rod which cooperates with the load-applying roller. The two oppositely located rollers, i.e., the load-applying roller and the abutment roller, interact each with one of the two narrow sides of the door holding rod through cylindrical smooth running surfaces. This results in the disadvantage that, when the hinge axis of the door holding rod is aligned at an angle relative to the roller axes, the door holding rod is guided at an angle relative to the running surfaces of the rollers, so that there is an insufficient holding force of the door holding device, on the one hand, and, on the other, an increased wear of the door holding device, particularly resulting in a development of noise.
Therefore, door holding devices of the above-described type must be manufactured with high precision and consequently are difficult and expensive to manufacture. Moreover, this type of door holding device requires a particularly careful alignment of the components to be fastened to the two door insulation members, door and door posts, i.e., holder housing and bearing block, so that the assembly of the door holding device in the motor vehicle body is also time-consuming and therefore expensive.
Furthermore, particularly due to the assembly machines used in modern automobile manufacture, when the door which has originally been adjusted and aligned in the unfinished vehicle body is reassembled, it is difficult to avoid slight deformations of the door body and of the door posts and it is therefore very difficult to ensure an exact relative alignment of roller axes and hinge axis of the door holding rod.